The weekly "Urdu Times," New York, dated Oct 6th, 1999 has published a detailed interview of Dr. Israr Ahmed. The respected doctor is a sincere and renowned scholar of Islam. One great thing is that he does not prefix his name with "Maulana". He knows that according to the Qur'an, "Maulana" or the"Master" of us all is no one but Allah (9/51).

More than 3 decades ago, the daily "Jang" Karachi prominently published the news that Dr. Israr Ahmed had quit Jamat-e-Islami. The chief of Jamat-e-Islami was called Maulana Syed Abul A'Ala Maudoodi. Dr. Israr and others who quit with him maintained that "Al-A'ALA" is the name of God, meaning the most Glorious the most High. Abu means father. Therefore Abul A'Ala would mean "THE FATHER OF GOD". Hence, Maulana Syed Abul A'Ala Maudoodi translates "our master, owner, Father of God Maudoodi" (Syed means owner).

Instead of acknowledging the truth, Mr. Maudoodi became furious and fired Dr. Israr from the Jamaat. In turn, Maudoodi came under fire that he had been a dire opponent of the Pakistan Movement. Also that Allama Iqbal was a great benefactor of Maudoodi since he brought the jobless Maudoodi from Deccan to Pathan Kot and assigned him to do Qur'anic research. But, the daily "Jang" exclaimed that, for some ulterior reason Maudoodi carefully avoided citing the verses of Iqbal in his writings.

No doubt Allama Iqbal enjoys such a high station in Urdu and Persian literature that any scholar writing in these two languages without referring to the Allama will reflect his own ignorance and incompetence.

In an interview with Urdu Times, answering a question, Dr. Israr said, "Tableeghi Jamaat" accomplished nothing in 70 years, Jamaate-Islami brought no change in 60 years. Why wonder that I and my Tanzeem-e-Islami have created no dent in 40 years? (The weight of Dr. Israr's logic should be scaled by our reader).

Dr. Israr Ahmed has his admirers world-wide. Shabbir Ahmed is one of them. But the answer to the Urdu Times' journalist is something else. It is hidden from the truth-seeking eyes of the doctor sahib. There is a word in Arabic, "Taghreez". When a vehicle gets stuck so that it's wheels keep spinning in the sand but the vehicle stays put, this is called "Taghreez". The truth of the matter is that whether it is Tableeghi Jamaat or Jamaat-e-Islami or any other Islamic movement in the world, their engines are screaming while the vehicles remain stuck in the sand of tradition. "Movements" which do not move! Allama Iqbal very aptly identifies the situation for us:

Allama Iqbal

The Truth is lost in non-sense

This nation is lost in legend

Look at the magic of these legends and traditions. A mullah of the caliber of Dr. Israr Ahmed states in his interview that "Imam Mehdi" has been born in Arabia in 1962.

The authority he has referred to about his startling discovery is the late Jeane Dixon of the U.S. the self-proclaimed diviner who gained fame for "foreseeing" the assassination of J.F.K. (but could not predict her own demise!) Many of my respected readers have been calling me regarding this interview partly because they don't have Dr. Israr Ahmed's phone number. Several of them have asked me to write on the subject of the Advent of the Messiah (&Mehdi) and comment on Dr. Israr's mysterious statements. (Many of the readers surely know that the correct spelling of doctor saheb's name is Asrar which in itself means "mysteries").

"UNQUOTE"

On hand these Rampant Mullah try their best to thrust Shariah down the throats of Muslims and demand "JIZYA" from NON-MUSLIMS but these very Mullahs forget Islam while telling us about the Birth of Mahdi that too through the Predictions of Jeane Dixon, American Astrologer, and as per my poor and humble knowledge of Islami Shariah as far as Astrology is concerned:

that there is no such thing like Zodiac Sign, Stars [with knowledge of unseen and having effects on those who are borne under any particualr Zodiac Sign], Astrology, Palmistry in Islam. Dr Israr Ahmad should ask for repentence because consulting and even quoting such 'FILTH' makes your Salat [Prayers] invalid for 40 days.

“Say: ‘None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghayb (Unseen) except Allaah…’” [al-Naml 27:65]

The Messenger of Allaah SAWs (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): “Whoever goes to a fortune-teller and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted for forty days.” [Muslim]

And it was narrated by the authors of al-Sunan and by al-Haakim, who classed it as saheeh, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad.”

“He does not belong to us who observes bird omens or has that done for him, or who seeks divination or who has that done for him, or who practices witchcraft or has that done for him. Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).” [Narrated by al-Bazzaar with Authentic Chain of Narration]

1 – The belief that these stars have a real influence in the sense that they create events and evil. This is major shirk (shirk akbar), because whoever claims that there is another creator alongside Allaah is a mushrik in the sense of major shirk, for he is regarding a created thing that is subjugated as a creator which subjugates.

2 – Making this a reason to claim to have knowledge of the unseen, so from the movements and changes in the stars he deduces that such and such will happen because such and such has happened to such and such a star. For example, he may say that one person’s life will be miserable because he was born under this star, and that another person’s life will be happy because he was born under that star. This person is taking knowledge of the stars as a means to claim that he has knowledge of the unseen, and claiming to have knowledge of the unseen is kufr (disbelief) which puts one beyond the pale of Islam, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Say: None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghayb (Unseen) except Allaah”[al-Naml 29:65]

The grammatical structure used in the original Arabic – starting with the negation laa (translated here as “none”) followed by the word illa (“except”) – is one of the most emphatic ways of expressing exclusivity. So if a person claims to know the unseen, he is effectively disbelieving what the Qur’aan says.

3 – If he believes that the stars are the cause of good or bad things happening, this is minor shirk (shirk asghar), i.e., when something happens he attributes it to the stars (and only attributes it to the stars after it has happened). The basic principle is that whoever believes that one thing is the cause of another when Allaah has not made it so, is overstepping the mark and not acknowledging Allaah as He should be acknowledged, because the One Who makes things happen is Allaah alone. For example, if a person seeks healing from a piece of string (tied around his wrist), and says, “I believe that healing is in the hand of Allaah and this string is simply the means,” we would say to him, “You have saved yourself from major shirk but you have fallen into lesser shirk, because Allaah has not made string a clear means of healing. By doing this you have transgressed against His position of Controller and Sustainer, by making something a means to something else when Allaah has not made it so.” The same applies to one who regards the stars as the cause of rainfall when this is not the case. The evidence for that is the hadeeth narrated by al-Bukhaari (801) and Muslim (104) from Zayd ibn Khaalid al-Juhani who said:

“The Messenger of Allaah SAWs (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) led us in praying Fajr at al-Hudaybiyah, following rainfall during the night. When he had finished praying, he turned to the people and said, ‘Do you know what your Lord has said?’ They said, ‘Allaah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘This morning one of My slaves became a believer in Me and one became a disbeliever. As for the one who said, “We have been given rain by virtue of Allaah and His mercy,” he is a believer in Me and a disbeliever in the stars. But as for the one who said, “We have been given rain by such and such a star,” he is a disbeliever in Me and a believer in the stars.’” So the one who attributes rain to the stars is saying that the stars caused the rain.

Astrology, horoscopes, superstition and fortune-telling are all actions of jaahiliyyah (ignorance) which Islam came to show as false and to explain that they are shirk, because they involve depending on something other than Allaah and believing that benefit and harm come from something other than Him, and believing the words of fortune-tellers and soothsayers who falsely claim to have knowledge of the unseen in order to cheat people of their money and change their beliefs.

The evidence (daleel) for that is the hadeeth narrated by Abu Dawood in his Sunan with a saheeh isnaad from Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:

“Whoever learns anything of astrology has learned a branch of witchcraft (al-sihr)…”

And al-Bazzaar narrated with a jayyid isnaad from ‘Imraan ibn Husayn that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:

“He is not one of us who practises augury or has it done for him, who tells fortunes or has his fortune told, or who practises witchcraft or has that done for him.”

Whoever claims to know some matter of the unseen either is a fortune-teller or is acting like a fortune-teller in some sense, because Allaah is the only One Who has knowledge of the unseen. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning);